San Diego Symphony’s Demarre McGill is bound for Seattle

The San Diego Symphony’s highly regarded principal flutist, Demarre McGill, is moving to Seattle, where he won an audition for principal flute of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

McGill made the announcement at a concert Tuesday at the San Diego Art Museum by Art of Élan, the chamber music series he created with Kate Hatmaker, a violinist with the symphony.

McGill thanked the capacity audience, which filled the museum’s Hibben Gallery and spilled into the hallways, for their support and promised he’d stay involved in Art of Élan and return to San Diego for its concerts next season.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, McGill joined the San Diego Symphony in 2004. He was formerly principal flutist at Tampa Bay’s Florida Orchestra, where Jahja Ling, the San Diego Symphony’s music director, had previously conducted.

He has been a frequent soloist with the orchestra and has been heavily involved in the San Diego community, both with Art of Élan and as co-founder of the Myriad Trio, which performs at UCSD, among other venues. He and his brother, clarinetist Anthony McGill, are the scheduled soloists for the orchestra’s May 21 program in Copley Symphony Hall.

The symphony had no immediate response to McGill’s announcement. It seems likely the orchestra’s accomplished second flute, Sarah Tuck, who filled in as acting principal before McGill’s arrival, will again take the first chair at the beginning of next season until auditions can be held. The 2004 principal flute auditions won by McGill attracted approximately 160 applicants.